Kevin Durant leads Team USA to gold, wins MVP

After averaging 33 points in the last three games with 28 on 10-17 shooting in the gold medal game, Kevin Durant was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2010 FIBA World Championships.

Durant was beyond electric for the U.S. in the gold medal game against Turkey. He had 20 points in the first half and finished with seven 3s. He set a record for most points total at the Worlds with 205, beating the previous mark by 23.

Russell Westbrook was nearly equally important finishing with 13 points, six rebounds and three assists in the gold medal game. For the tournament, Westbrook played a role and played it extremely well. He was the energizer off the bench and gave the U.S. a much-needed punch a few times. For the tourney, he averaged 9.1 points per game, was third in assists (2.5 a game) and played pretty terrific defense.

For the Thunder duo, they contributed over half of Team USA’s total points in the last three games. They were excellent and other than the awesome (and most important) fact that they get to bring hom a gold medal to put in their house, they also built some confidence and some momentum for this Thunder season.

Playing off the ball more is a legitimate reason for Westbrook's A/TO being lower than the other PGs but 1.4 is pretty low even for SG. The NBA average for big minute SGs was 1.7 and a PG at SG should have a skill advantage to maybe find a few more, especially with the cast of options available in mostly easy games. But congrats.

Mark! :These championship games have made me sad that we don’t have a competent big man. KD and Russ both played so well with one. Here’s hoping Aldrich is that man, otherwise we’ll probably be waiting a long time…

KD played well AS the big man! He played center for a good chunk of the second half didn't he? [not saying this would translate to the NBA obviously]

Mark! :These championship games have made me sad that we don’t have a competent big man. KD and Russ both played so well with one. Here’s hoping Aldrich is that man, otherwise we’ll probably be waiting a long time…

Agreed.

We knew KD could score but his toughness and leadership over this team surprised me most.

I don't have access to Synergy from work but I'd like to see how often we used KD as the handler or the screener in PnR situations. We seemed to do it very successfully in FIBA. This is yet another thing I hope Brooks adds to the playbook.

To clarify, Noah was mentioned as a decent candidate to win one who they also could have gotten and not the leading contender. (If he wins, so will Rose presumably.) The leading contenders are James and Bosh. If they succeed this season, it will be success in season 8 for both.

Youth is promising, sometimes great. But since the 2000 draft, only 2 players taken in the top 10 have played leading roles in championships. Gasol twice and Wade once (with Shaq still in or near prime). Unless I missed someone. There can be players from outside the top 10 like Rondo of course. 3 others played bit roles in championships.

Who will be next?

Noah? He got an NCAA title.

The top 10 guys from drafts in the 90s have around 25 titles, most in leading roles. It might be worth checking the average length in the league before they got it but I think it is probably at least 7 years and I don't feel like adding it up at the moment.

Love got to play with Durant and reunite with Westbrook. In 2012 Durant or both may get to play with Oden. There are hypothetical scenarios where Love and Oden might move by team choice or their own choice, though the odds are probably fairly low and may be very low.

Maybe the plan "works" fairly well or very well without importing a big beyond what they have in the pipeline. Maybe that issue will get re-visited along the way and resolved most favorably or in the end not solved as favorably as needed. Passing on Love, Lopez and a few others will remain a question until the design leads to the top or near enough to the top to fully let it go.

Blazers got to #1 on offense with Roy and Aldridge in 08-09 and company. If they can get back closer to that and if Oden, Camby, Joel P. help them move up from 13th on defensive efficiency to in or near the top 5 they will be quite strong. Dual strength is typical of the very best teams.

Durant could have taken them higher in terms of absolute offensive strength and he probably wouldn't cost them anything on defense either, might even help them. But we'll see what they can do with Oden. Maybe.

I understand the motivation for that Portland sign idea. But wonder how Oden will look, not much on Nov. 4 and 12, but rather on Mar. 27 and April 1 and perhaps in the playoffs. I don't imagine it will shake your desire to say a big thank you but it may change the way the Blazer fans react or the degree to which folks, of these teams or neutral, see it as a win-win outcome. Ultimately it is a chase between them for a team title or the most titles.

In comparing Rose and Westbrook this time it should go beyond just the raw personal boxscore stats and also look at team offensive and defensive efficiencies and team +/- when they were at the helm. Unadjusted or adjusted as they wish.And do the same with their NBA data from the next 2 seasons.

The champs over the last 3 seasons always had at 2 bigs over PER 13 in the playoffs and this season the Lakers had 3. Ibaka and Kristic were the 2 and if you bent the rules Durant might be considered sort of a third.

The champs though also always had at least one big over PER 17 and the average was 2. Last season the Lakers had 3. OKC none this time. They are the team you probably have to beat to get out of the west. Essentially as constituted now they can't match the Lakers on big man offense and would have to win with defense and / or perimeter scoring. Durant as full wattage would have made a big difference. This tournament probably helps but he'll still have to beat Artest and the Lakers team defense.

In 07-08 the Cavs only had one other guy above PER13 in the playoffs alongside LeBron. In 08-09 they had 5 total, barely. In 09-10 it fell back to 4, and when that failed in the second round, the star left and the coach and GM were not retained.

These championship games have made me sad that we don't have a competent big man. KD and Russ both played so well with one. Here's hoping Aldrich is that man, otherwise we'll probably be waiting a long time...

3 of the 5 were greatly helped in being above PER 13 because of their shooting efficiency. 3 were helped greatly by strong rebounding and blocking. All did fine on turnovers. Only Westbrook was helped much by assists.

Westbrook might have been the "best player" overall who played PG but he had the worst A/TO by far. Westbrook at 1.4, Rose a bit above 2, Billups a bit above 3. But maybe that wouldn't be as big a deal when Wade and James are around.

A few other tidbits:

A study shows that the last few years saw guys with 5+ years of experience play among the highest % of total league minutes in the last 33 years.

A check of the Lakers, Celtics, Cavs and Magic over the last 3 seasons showed the NBA finalists always had 5 or more guys over PER 13 in the playoffs. When the Cavs and Magic failed to have that they were bounced in the second round. The Lakers were at 5. Their finals opponent was actually always higher. The Thunder actually managed 5 in the playoffs. 3 starters, 2 bench.

That sounds right Filipe. It could go either way. Hard to say until they know how many top guys are available for each role- PGF, wing and big. I assume they take more bigs next time but not sure how many and maybe my guess is wrong.

Durant was silky smooth in the first half and I texted my OKC bud during the game and he said...wow, we are so lucky to have him here for five years, and I said, yes, Thank you Portland.

So when the trailblazers come to the Ford Center this year, I might paste a draft day picture of Durant on some posterboard with the note "Thank You Portland".

USA team broke away and started playing well in the second half but the first half was ALL DURANT. Him (and Odom) were the only thing going on in the first half. USA Basketball was fortunate to have him this year. If Durant was not on this team, they would not have won the Gold. That cannot be said about any other player.

Nice gold for the US. They just rode KD to the title. The world couldn't stop him, and very soon, most NBA teams will have the same problem. OKC will make the finals (but unfortunately, probably lose to the Heat). Well done USA, now go OKC!

Durant and Westbrook just reminded the world who has the best basketball players. Sorry for the nationalistic Jingoism, OKC Thunder players just scored more than 50% of our points over the last 3 FIBA games, we just earned some nationalistic jingoism, and we had better respect the talent we have playing in our state!

That was a lot of fun. Durant was really in the zone, just hitting 3 after 3. It just looked like he couldn't miss. Even Russell hit two 3 pointers. If that doesn't tell you that things were going your way, I don't know what would.